New York, I love you.

My final days in New York City have come and gone.

I'm sitting here, in my wonderful home in Charlotte, reflecting back on not only the last week I spent in that magical city, but the entire four months I lived there. You know how they (whoever "they" are) say: "Time flies when you're having fun"? Well, those mysterious beings are certainly correct. I had the most amazing semester, and I feel that it just went by in the blink of an eye. 

Allison and me on the very first day... wayyyyy back in August, when we discovered this awesome view was only four blocks from our front door.

I honestly didn't even know how to start this final "New York City Adventure" post.

So, I'm just going to briefly touch on my last week.... and then whatever happens after that, happens. Cool? Cool.

This last week was filled with so many shenanigans and food and friends and music and happiness and thankfulness and goodbyes.

I drank some delicious coffee (with a complimentary chocolate) from Leonida's, which is a gourmet chocolate shop right down the street from Bank Robber Music.

I went back in time with my friends, and ended up at McSorley's once again!

I ate delicious, $1 New York pizza at 1:00am. (Which, by the way, is the only way to do it. It tastes better at 1:00am).

My friends and I went on a little adventure to the East Village and ended up at a subway stop where they were doing some of the most annoyingly loud construction in the world.

At least Josh was happy and excited!

Then, on Wednesday night, I went to my final Belmont East class.

... and we got to go on a tour of the NBC Studios. I know. BEST CLASS EVER. 

(Those are the only two pictures I could take... they didn't allow cameras in the actual studios. But believe me, they were great.)

Anddd, because I was down by the Rockefeller Center, I decided to take a little looksie at the Christmas tree.

It truly was magnificent. And I couldn't resist posing with it.

On Thursday, I went on my own, little adventure... I wandered around in SoHo, NoHo, and Chinatown, looking for Christmas gifts and enjoying the beautiful, winter weather. 

And, on my way home, I accidentally hopped on the wrong train.... It seems it was meant to be, though. Because I ended up at this subway stop, where I was witness to the most beautiful singing voice I have ever heard in my entire life. I am completely serious about this.

I stood right in this very spot and listened to mister Freddie King sing his heart out for a good 15 minutes. My train came and went TWICE while I listened, but I didn't care. As I've said to others already, his voice brought tears to my eyes in the best way possible. 

Thursday evening, I went to go see my friend, Finn, play some fiddle in a play that was put on at Juilliard. Yes. THE Juilliard. So neat.

I can't really remember what happened on Friday... but I have this photo as proof that I at least did something.

On Saturday, I went back to the flea market. On my way home, I couldn't resist picking up a slice of chocolate cheesecake from Junior's. 

Hands down, the most delicious cheesecake of my life. Can't handle it.

On Saturday, Allison, Olivia, Sarah Margaret, and I all went to brunch at Iris Cafe for one, final cup of delicious coffee and avocado toast.

(Yesterday morning, my mother surprised me for breakfast with her own version of Iris Cafe's avocado toast. I have to say, it was the same... if not, better. Now, I can make my own!)

On Monday, I had the absolute longest day of work (from about 10:30am until about 7:30pm). But, it was my final day in the office, and I soaked it up as much as I could. I hated to say goodbye to the wonderful people I've been lucky enough to work with this whole semester.

That evening, I met Adam and Eric for a drink at Floyd. It was so relaxing and cosy and perfect.

Tuesday was my final, full day in New York... and I decided to cram as many things into the day as I possibly could. I believe I definitely succeeded. 

First things first: I took a stroll down to the promenade to soak in the view and drink some Tazza coffee.

I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful last day. I did nothing to this photo to enhance anything. The sky was LITERALLY that shade of blue.

And I took the subway up to Central Park to wander around. (Part of me secretly wanted to get lost somewhere deep in the park... that way, I'd have a good excuse to miss my flight the following day. Then I realized how impossible that would be... and how terrifying it would be if it actually were possible).

I listened to more great subway musicians on my ride back to Brooklyn.

(I was worried that this guy would lose his keyboard any minute... it was hanging by a superrr thin string around his neck. Hope that worked out for him.)

I met some Belmont Easters for dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant down the street, and then I raced over to Rockwood Music Hall in the East Village. The fabulous jazz musicians at Mona's were having their CD release show!

And it was so perfect. It was an evening of singing and swing dancing and all-around good music. 

After the show, I raced BACK to Brooklyn Heights to meet up with the Belmont East crew for one final drink at Floyd.

(I stole this photo from Olivia. Thanks, lady.)

It was such a perfect ending to a perfect final day in New York City. 

On Wednesday, I said many "goodbyes" (to people AND to the city itself). After packing my entire life back into two suitcases, I made my way to the airport.

This was my attempt to take a final photo of New York from my cab. Didn't work out as well as I'd planned.

I arrived at the airport 2 and half hours early, because I knew that I was probably going to run into some sort of weight problem with my bags (seeing as I could barely lift either of them more than two inches off the ground).

I really wish that someone would have taken a picture of me with all of my stuff. I guarantee you that I looked insane. Just picture me with two GIANT suitcases, one giant guitar, and three other bags hanging off of me. It took me about 10 minutes just to get from the cab to the kiosk at US Airways.

First thing I did was weigh both of my bags. One was 48 pounds... the other, 59 pounds. Let's just say, I threw away quite a few things in the airport (including some bedsheets). One of the US Airways ladies saw me about to throw away my hangers, and she asked if she could have them for the coat room. I was more than happy to give them to her! In fact, I almost wanted to open up my suitcases and have a little yard sale right there in the airport. 

After stuffing the garbage cans full of my things, I went back to weigh the bags... both of them were 50 pounds EXACTLY. I don't know how I did it, but I practically received a round of applause from all of the US Airways workers. They said they'd never seen anyone do that in one try before. (This is a skill a didn't realize I had... is there a job out there that I could apply for that would be impressed by this?).

Then, in the blink of an eye, I was on the plane, watching New York City get smaller and smaller from my window.

Note: I didn't take this photo. My phone was turned off. But my view literally looked JUST like this.

It is hard to believe that my semester in New York City has come to a close. As much as I wish it could have been longer, though, I feel that I really did take advantage of every moment of every day. I didn't leave thinking, "I really wish I'd done so and so". To bring this blog full circle, I feel like I really "gave every moment a taste". (Metaphorically and literally). Hehe.

Thank you all so much for following me throughout this entire adventure! At times, the last thing I wanted to do was sit for an hour and create a blog post... but I kept trucking along, because I knew that there were others out there waiting for the next installment. And I am beyond happy that I chronicled my time in the Big Apple. Thank you all so so much.

This isn't the end of my blog posts... However, I won't be posting about every single moment of my life anymore. Just little things here and there about my music, recipes, and random thoughts. (Aka: I won't be "giving EVERY moment a taste".... I will only be "giving little, tiny bites". Hehe.)

In conclusion, I <3 New York.

It was so hard to leave, but I know that the city will always be there... I'll just have to go back and visit every once in awhile. 

Now, I'm off to start my next, great adventure.

<3

Nat 

22nd birthday, Brooklyn Nets game, and a website facelift

IT'S SNAINING OUTSIDE!

Snaining. Aka: It is snowing and raining at the same time.

I just attempted to take a photo of the little piles of snow accumulating outside my window, but I almost dropped my camera in the process, therefore, I decided it wasn't worth it. But believe me, there is some snow comin' down. My first snow in New York City :). This is a momentous occasion. 

But let me back up for a second. Last you heard from me, it was Halloween. Because my birthday was the next day, my wonderful, lovely Belmont East friends took me out for the evening to celebrate. And because we were all still stuck in Brooklyn (trains weren't fixed until this past Monday), we just stuck to our usual hangout at Floyd.

Here I am with my lovely roomie.

It was such a fun-filled evening with some great pals.

THURSDAY

The next morning, I woke up bright and early, feeling like a completely different person. Just kidding. I felt literally the exact same I had the day before. But, I'm 22 now! I love even numbers, and I love the number 2, so I think this is going to be a good year for me.

I grabbed some coffee at Tazza and walked down to the promenade to sit and think about my wonderful city, my wonderful friends, and my wonderful life. It was an absolutely beautiful day. I couldn't stop thinking, "How am I so lucky? I am so blessed." Now, if that's not a good way to start your birthday, I don't know what is.

Once Allison woke up, we both sauntered on down to Iris Cafe for a delicious breakfast of avocado toast and coffee (I know.. I had two coffees within the span of an hour. Oops.).

The rest of the day consisted of tons of relaxing, watching movies, and yummy scented candles.

(That is a cinnamon sugar doughnut candle, courtesy of the wonderful, Caroline Gaskin). 

And I also indulged in some good, old fashioned New York cheesecake.

It might not look like much, but I promise it was incredible. I tried to finish it. I really did. But I thought my stomach was going to explode. I did some damage, though.

It was such a perfect day-- filled with friends and food and New York City. It doesn't get much better than that. Here's to 22!

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

One of my professors, Dr. Maddox, took the trip up to New York so that we could have class. Yippee! Class on the weekend! (I'm being very sarcastic).

But in all seriousness, it really was an interesting class. Basically, it's called a "Senior Capstone" and it's set up only for seniors at Belmont... we sit around and talk about life after college, searching for jobs, and avoiding going into debt. It was extremely depressing, but it was also very informative. I just can't stop thinking about the fact that I'm GRADUATING FROM COLLEGE in May. What? I mean, really. What? 

It's exciting and terrifying at the same time.

SUNDAY

I can't remember. Nada. No idea. Oops.

MONDAY

I got to go to a Brooklyn Nets game for class! I know... you're probably thinking, "What kind of class is that?" 

The answer? 

An awesome class.

I get really into games when I see them live, so I was super pumped. It was only the second game EVER for the Nets, which is pretty cool, and the Barclays Arena (where it was held) is such a neat building.

Unfortunately, the Nets lost. I don't know what in the world happened... they were up by more than 10 points the entire game, and then in the last 4 minutes, they dropped the ball (badumpcha!). They ended up losing by 8 points, or something like that. 

I was pretty upset, until I realized something kind of neat. Seeing as they won their first game, we got to be a part of history. We got to see the Brooklyn Nets lose their first game ever! (I know.. a bit of a stretch... I wanted to pull something positive from it).

TUESDAY

I was supposed to go into my internship, however, the Internet is still down in our building. All of the work that we have to do at Bank Robber requires the use of the Internet. Therefore, everyone else is working from home until it's back up and running!

Because I had a lot of down time (and it was the first time I'd had the room alone in awhile), I decided it would be a good time to work on Kickstarter songs! I am proud to say that I've finished up my next original song for one of my Kickstarter backers :). I won't be posting it until the beginning of next week, but it is all finished and ready to go. Wooohoo.

Tuesday night, I did what everyone else in America was probably doing.

I watched the news to see who would be our 44th President!

Don't worry, I'm not going to go into any sort of political rant or speech (many people on my Facebook newsfeed did quite enough of that). All I'm going to say is that I think it's so wonderful to live in a country where we have the opportunity to vote for our leaders. No matter what your view or who you may have voted for, I just hope that everyone can put differences aside and support the man who will be leading our country for the next four years. That's all! Back to the usual shtuff.

WEDNESDAY

I've been working on music all the live long day. I have a Christmas show coming up in December, another show at the Evening Muse coming up in December, a wedding coming up in January, and all of my Kickstarter songs. I am one busy gal! But it's music, which I love, so I'm happy.

And finally, a quick announcement! Thanks to Bobby Herb, my music website has been given a beautiful facelift :).

Go to: www.natalieroyal.com to check it out!

I'm off to go run around in this snain (snow/rain). I have my fingers crossed that the roads will be okay in the morning, because I am off to my grandparents' in upstate New York via Megabus bright and early! Can't wait to see them.

<3

Nat

Another visitor and the arrival of Hurricane Sandy

Whew. It has been a whirlwind of a last week. (I mean this in the figurative and the literal sense).

Before I go into my usual spiel that consists of what I've been up to the last seven days, I would first like to thank those of you who have reached out to me during the last few days to make sure I was safe and sound. I am one lucky gal... not only to have so many people that love and care for me, but also because I made it out completely unscathed. You are truly some of the best. Thank you so much.

Before Hurricane Sandy decided to make her grand entrance, I had yet another visitor arrive to hang out with me this weekend.

Ladies and Gents: Meet Caroline Gaskin. One of my best friends since the 6th grade (crazyyy right?).

She arrived superrrr late on Thursday evening (I'm talkin' 1:00am), so it was straight to bed almost immediately. The next morning, we went for a little stroll around the neighborhood (and I took her to the promenade, of course).

After getting some delicious breakfast at Clark's Diner across the street, we decided to venture out to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (aka the hippest area of New York City) to try to find some items of clothing at thrift stores that could ultimately be our Halloween costumes for the weekend adventures. Caroline, being the fitness lady that she is, suggested that we run there. It was such a wonderful 3 mile trek! (I was slightly dying by the end of it all.... but she was completely fine. Didn't want to tell her that, though).

We were successful in our finds! Later in the post, you'll see what we came up with as far as costumes go.

Friday evening, Caroline and I made our way into Midtown Manhattan to get some Mexican food and a couple of drinks during happy hour.

We also found ourselves in Times Square.

And Caroline posed with some of the regulars.

And we indulged in some late-night pizza.

On Saturday morning, Allison, Caroline, and I decided to go to Iris Cafe. (You knew it was coming... I have to introduce everyone to this place).

Later in the day, we went to H & M and then strolled on over to my favorite area of Central Park.

It was such a beautiful fall day... all of the leaves were starting to finally change into their autumn colors.

With the storm making its way towards us, I thought that this might be the one and only time I would see the leaves like this. I soaked up as much of our time there as I could.

Later in the day, we had dinner at a little Polish restaurant down the street, called Teresa's (you might remember it from one of the breakfasts I had very early on).

There's a photo of my tasty avocado salad and Caroline's delicious dinner of homemade soup and a blintze... I think that's how you spell it. It was SO GOOD. Ridiculously good.

After dinner, we made our way back to the room to get ready for the evening... We decided to dress up (in the hopes that everyone else in New York would be doing the same).

And here are the final costumes! I decided to be the Morton Salt Girl (because it was supposed to possibly rain later in the night), Caroline was a cute, little flapper gal, and Allison was a jellyfish. It doesn't get any more eclectic than that in my opinion.

The whole night was a blast! We ventured all around Greenwich Village and showed off our costumes (Allison was quite the hit with hers in particular).

And so many other people were dressed up! Actually, pretty much everyone in New York City was dressed up that night. It was so much fun.

The next morning, Caroline and I decided to go BACK to Teresa's for breakfast... we just couldn't stay away. It was too delicious. Here she is with her brie and mushroom omelet.

Unfortunately, the threat of Sandy forced Caroline to cut her trip short. She was supposed to stay until Monday morning, however, she changed her flight to Sunday evening in order to get out while she still could... In hindsight, the fact that she was able to make this work is amazing. I've talked to people who are STILL stuck in New York City with no chance of getting home until the coming weekend.

I hated to see her go, but I knew it was for the best. And we had such a wonderful time :).

After she left, Allison and I decided to kick our preparation for Sandy into high gear. It was clear that she would be arriving (and would definitely cause some damage to the city), so we decided it would be better if we rode out the storm in Queens with her family.

Before leaving, I made a quick trip to the grocery store to stock up on some apples and carrots. It was a mad house... took me 45 minutes to check out, and nothing was left on the shelves.

For the rest of Sunday through today (Wednesday), Allison and I were with her family. Although it was a slightly terrifying time (we didn't know if a tree was going to fall on the house or if the power would go out), it was also a very relaxing time. I have been "go go go" the last three weeks, so it was so nice to hunker down, sleep, and enjoy some home-cooked meals.

We watched a lot of Law and Order SVU.

And carved some pumpkins.

All the while, her dogs kept watch on the storm brewing outside.

I don't think I can say enough times how lucky we were during this storm. Millions lost power, many lost their homes or personal belongings, and even some lost their lives. We were all safe, and besides the lights flickering a few times, we never even lost our power. I felt (and still feel) extremely blessed.

These photos below were taken just down the street from Allison's house. Trees were uprooted everywhere... many of them pulling up the sidewalks with them. I've never seen anything like it.

I can't even put into words how much sadness I feel for the people of New York and all of the others affected by Hurricane Sandy. This city that I've fallen in love with is a little broken at the moment. It pains me to see it in shambles like it is.

My 22nd birthday is tomorrow, and as excited as I am to turn one year older, it is also a little strange for me. There are so many people who have lost everything from this storm... I don't NEED anything at all for my birthday. I've decided that all I want is a slice of some good, old fashioned New York cheesecake and to spend some time outside in this beautiful city. That would really be the best birthday of all.

If you were thinking of getting me something for my birthday (and even if you weren't), it would really mean a lot if you put it to better use (I like clothes and all of that, but this is a little bit better). There are several ways to help out those in need, but to make it easy, here is a link to donate to the Red Cross. All proceeds will go directly to storm victims and disaster relief. I donated just a little bit ago.

Thank you all so much! Now, to enjoy my last night as a 21-year-old.

<3
Nat

PS: This is on a church located right down the street from me. It's been up for awhile, but I find it very fitting at the moment.

Yeeahhh Oprah. You tell 'em.